Lawrence O'Donnell rips up torture apologist David Rifkin

[Wetzelbill]

Run time: 04:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ly-0cUCRlU   Posted on YouTube: May 08, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: May 09, 2009 By DU Member: Wetzelbill Views on DU: 3239

 
Summary:
David Rifkin comes on and is defending torture and O'Donnell confronts him on it. Rifkin is using the U.S. program of putting our own soldiers etc threw various techniques as proof it isn't torture, and O'Donnell asks him if he's been in the military and when Rifkin says no, he lays into him. O'Donnell then reads off a soldier's account of going through the process and how horrible it is and taunts Rifkin with it by saying things like: "But you're tough enough to take it" etc.

on edit:

Oops my bad, the name is David RiVkin. Typo.

[elleng]

1. Where's this sh*t head from? He's NOT American,

and doesn't know what it means to be one!

"Proof is in the PUDDING?" BLOOD pudding!

[jgraz]

15. Teh Google says he was born in St. Petersburg, Florida.

And you know if it's on the internet it must be true.

[elleng]

17. St. Petersburg maybe, FLORIDA? NAH!!!

.

[jgraz]

23. I thought the same thing

[JDPriestly]

28. Rivkin has a strong East European, Israeli or Russian accent.

He may have been born in St. Petersburg, but I doubt that his St. Petersburg was in Florida. Either that or he grew up overseas or lived in an East European, Russian ghetto in St. Petersburg. It's also possible that he learned this accent because he did not hear American English as a small child and has little talent for languages. His accent is unmistakable and strong. Nothing wrong with it, but his background is not middle America, and it appears that his values are not very American either. Probably not Israeli, probably Russian or East European.

[aquart]

31. "Probably not Israeli" but important for you to get that in there?

Oh, why?

[jgraz]

37. Given the bloodthirsty nature of the Likud, it's not a bad guess

Are their politics not directly in line with the neocons? Or am I missing something?

[JDPriestly]

41. Because I am listening to his voice and accent. It could

be an Israeli accent, but it is more likely it is East European or Russian. Of course, many Israelis are from Eastern Europe and Russia originally, so I suppose if someone grew up in Israel around family and friends who spoke with East European and Russian accents, that person would have that kind of accent.

Actually, he may have dual citizenship -- with any of the countries and the U.S. In that case, Israel is the most likely country of dual citizenship considering he is probably too old to be both a Russian and an American citizen. St. Petersburg, Fla. as place of birth? Now that's a birth certificate I would like to see.

[checks-n-balances]

38. None of the bios I tried to find on him mention that he's Russian, but he is

...apparently.

Here are some very interesting comments following a video with him being questioned by Sheldon Whitehouse in March:

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/03/04/sheldon-whitehouse-destroys-rivkins-gallery-of-horribles/

He worked as an attorney for the Reagan & Bush administrations. 'Nuf said.

The first time I ever saw Rivkin was on The Daily Show being interviewed by Jon Stewart. The man was smarmy and hostile, and that was several years ago. Along with his repulsive personality, he also looks gross now sporting that new henna rinse. But don't get me wrong: It's not how he looks that's so repugnant, it's what he says & how he says it.

It was great to see that O'Donnell let him get away with nothing. Fellow pundits & talking heads, take note: that's how it should be done.

[Enthusiast]

33. He's an SS wannabe. nt

[Sanity Claws]

2. Rifkin is Cheney's stooge

What's the accent? Any idea where he's from?

[elleng]

3. Keep interupting him; will go back to try to figure it out.

One of the old Eastern Europe hell holes, prolly.

[Sanity Claws]

4. Probably from Eastern Europe, you're right

What did you mean, "keep interupting him?"

[elleng]

7. I kept shutting him down to rant!

:rofl:

[Wetzelbill]

8. lol

[elleng]

9. I suspect he came 'over' with his family when he was young,

but he remained with them, maintained the 'mother tongue,' and hence the accent.

and he's a lawyer????

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGI5NzI4MzVhMTE4YWM5ZWZhYzkzNTM4NTVlZWY3OTg=

OMG, Save Us! a 'sick' Jewish lawyer. x(

'But Ahmadinejad's rant features a direct and unequivocal threat, and it gives Israel a valid casus belli -- under both Article 51 (self-defense) of the U.N. Charter and customary international law -- to use preemptive force as a means of ensuring that Iran cannot make good on its stated intentions.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/05/AR2006060501283.html

[elleng]

12. More. I find this interesting. How sick am I???

http://www.bakerlaw.com/davidbrivkin/

[Tangerine LaBamba]

14. Ouch......

That's my old law firm.

They bought up our little DC firm, and we disappeared. It really was awful, because we had been a little boutique firm, very particular with clients, and really well-connected, thanks to our two senior partners. But, when Baker & Hostetler swallowed us up, their corporate mentality was really horrid.

They were easy to leave...............

[elleng]

18. Texas firm, right?

Never mind! Cleveland! What a place!

[Tangerine LaBamba]

19. Cleveland

You're thinking of Jim Baker's firm out of Houston, Baker Botts................

[elleng]

20. Of cawse!!!!!

What was your boutique???

[Tangerine LaBamba]

22. Morrison Murphy Abrams and Haddock ........

Morrison was dead by the time I joined, Murphy was Charles S. Murphy, who had been Harry Truman's White House Counsel and Chief of Staff, Abrams was Sam Abrams was an old antitrust expert, and Haddock was the rainmaker.

They were old men, but in the few years I had with them, I learned how to be a lawyer. And the stories they told! Charlie was in the Oval Office when Truman canned MacArthur. Can you imagine?

[elleng]

24. Wunnerful experience!

.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

5. Was that Frank Fucking Gaffney

at the start of this clip? Was he on The Ed Show tonight?

What IS IT with MSNBC and Frank Fucking Gaffney? He's a horrible, miserable, soulless fucking liar, and they keep bringing him back.

Lawrence O'Donnell should have his own show. He takes no prisoners, and I love him for that .................

[Wetzelbill]

10. I think it was him

Yeah I'm not a big fan of Frank either. :)

[Enrique]

6. his shirt matches his hair

not that there's anything wrong with that. :shrug:

[jgraz]

16. his head matches his ass

[rwheeler31]

11. Why do all these guys sound like Cheney ?

[ginnyinWI]

13. cyborgs--all programmed by Darth himself. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. These sons of bitches don't get it, SERE IS torture, to prepare

people in very specific MOS to survive it long enough to buy time for everybody else. You can thank the Chinese Rifkin... you son of a bitch...

Sorry... I have little patience for shit heads like this.

[morffin]

25. Hes the missing Schmenge Brother!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWixj0HRQEw

[tomm2thumbs]

26. neither Cheney nor Rivkin served in the military - they are both complete cowards arguing nothing

'do as I say, not as I do'.... how many times have we heard THAT one?

[bc3000]

27. Bizarro Fox

Wow, that was horrible. I barely made it halfway through.

[d_b]

29. Rifkin even looks like a weaselly nazi stooge

good god.

[SKKY]

30. It makes me nauseaus when people use the SERE argument...

There are some huge differences between what goes on in SERE, and what has been done.

1. SERE "simulates" a torture environment so that our troops might have an idea of how to resist it. IT IS TORTURE, make no mistake about it.
2. SERE is run under a very strictly controlled environment. Nobody is waterboarded 83 times.
3. Those going through SERE KNOW THERE WILL BE AN END. I could very easily be waterboarded when I know that the people doing the
waterboarding are NOT going to kill me.
4. The waterboarding that may or may not go on during SERE is akin to the gas chamber exercise EVERYONE goes through during
bootcamp. "This is what it is, this is how you can protect yourself, ok, now go shower up, change clothes, and get some chow."

[Turborama]

32. O'Donnell really did hand him his ass

These torture apologists have not an ounce shame or empathy and deserve all the humiliation that comes their way.

Thanks Bill


:kick: & R

[mwb970]

34. Rivkin is the worst of the worst.

IMO he is worse than all of the shrieking harpies of the right (the Bachmanns, the Blackburns, the Foxxes, the Coulters, the Ingrahams, etc.) all put together. This guy is the poster child for anti-Americanism. Why he is given a platform, even to be decimated by the likes of O'Donnell, is a mystery to me.

I am so ashamed that this man is, apparently, an American citizen. (Have we seen his birth cerificate, by the way? If not, what is he hiding?)

[RainDog]

35. Hell yes Sere is torture

and the entire program should be stopped.

idiot argument for torture - we tortured our own so it's not torture? that's so Bush.

[olegramps]

36. Just seems to me to be some more fascists that we will have to put down like a mad dog.

They have the mentality that anything can be justified if is for the Fatherland. The ends justify the means. If you question our use of torture to protect the Fatherland then you are unpatriotic.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross"- Sinclair Lewis

[ihavenobias]

39. Thanks for posting this. n/t

[Jack Rabbit]

40. I agree with O'Donnell and share his outrage, but I wish he wouldn't do this

It is not Mr. O'Donnell's place to tell Mr. Rivkin that he is a fool. Mr. O'Donnell is conducting an interview and it is his place to ask Mr. Rivkin questions by which Mr. Rivkin reveals that he is a fool.

For example, the fact is that SERE program tortures American servicemen. It does so so that American servicemen will know what to expect if they are ever tortured by people who really mean it. The SERE program would be ineffective if it did not torture. So why does Rivkin deny that this is what the SERE program is doing? Couldn't O'Donnell have simply and calmly asked Rivkin questions based on that reasoning and left Rivkin stammering in his own contradictions? The way Mr. Rivkin is talking, we should neither be outraged when the government waterboards terrorist suspects nor when terrorists waterboard American servicemen. Perhaps we should not be outraged that the Spanish Inquisition waterboarded suspected witches and heretics into confession.

What we had here was not really a debate about the efficacy of torture or even whether waterboarding is torture. Those issues are settled and there are not two sides to the story. This means that Mr. Rivkin is little more than a freak, something like a Holocaust denier or a flat earther, who denies established facts. He really isn't worth the air time he got.

The story that the journalists should be pursuing is that of who approved and ordered American servicemen and others acting on behalf of the American people to perform acts of torture in violation of federal laws, the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture.

[tblue37]

42. Thanks Wetzelbill! This is exactly the sort of informative summary I was asking

for in my thread about summarizing for us deafies.

I was not asking people to transcribe a whole video (as a few comments suggested I was)--just to clue us in on what it was about. Your summary does that admirably.

[tblue37]

43. Here is a video thread that ignores my request for brief summaries:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x310358

Your summary was marvelously helpful. That video, not helpful at all. Just a title and a vid--no comment at all to let us know any of what is in the vid.